Colombia’s biggest rebel group, Farc, has accepted a challenge from national football great Carlos Valderrama to play a match for peace. Valderrama, a former Colombia team captain also known for his golden Afro hairdo, has joined a state programme to support victims of the armed conflict. In an open letter, the left-wing rebels said they were happy to play matches that helped foster reconciliation. The first leg would be played in Cuba, where the Farc is holding peace talks. In their letter, published on the rebels’ negotiating team blog, the Farc admitted they were “fanatical about football” and suggested a…

India’s mission to Mars has embarked on its 300-day journey to the Red Planet. Early on Sunday the spacecraft fired its main engine for more than 20 minutes, giving it the correct velocity to leave Earth’s orbit. It will now cruise for 680m km (422m miles), setting up an encounter with its target on 24 September 2014. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, is designed to demonstrate the technological capability to reach Mars orbit. But the $72m (£45m) probe will also carry out experiments, including a search for methane gas in the planet’s atmosphere. MOM tweeted: “Earth…

QuestCinq.com/News (Reuters) – One Syrian was killed and nine others were injured during a mortar shelling of the Russian embassy in Damascus, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. One mortar round landed at the embassy’s premises and the other exploded close to it, the statement posted on www.mid.ru said, killing and injuring local residents, including guards. “We consider them (shellings) acts of terrorism, whose executors and those inciting and supervising them, should receive a deserved punishment,” the ministry said. Russia, a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has criticized the West for aiding rebels who…

China says it scrambled fighter jets to monitor US and Japanese planes as they flew in its newly declared air defence zone in the East China Sea on Friday. The zone covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. China said last week that all aircraft crossing through the zone must file flight plans and identify themselves or face “defensive emergency measures”. The US, Japan and South Korea say they have since defied the ruling and flown military aircraft in the area. Continue reading the main story Analysis Charles ScanlonBBC News The United States and its allies appear…